We are designing our Accountability Chart for an exit three years out, but we are struggling to separate our current employees from the future seats we need to attract buyers. How do we structure this?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When preparing for an exit, owners often make the mistake of designing their Accountability Chart around the people they currently have rather than the functions the business needs to scale. This creates an organization that is highly dependent on specific individuals, which buyers view as a major risk. To prepare your chart for an exit, design the ideal Accountability Chart for your three-year vision first. Do this completely blank, without any names attached. Focus solely on the functions and major responsibilities required to run a self-sufficient company. Once the future chart is designed, map your current people to the seats. You will likely find gaps where you have missing seats, or where one person is sitting in multiple seats. These gaps represent key hires you must make before you can present the business to buyers. By structuring your organization first, and assigning people second, you ensure that the organization is built to operate independently of any single founder or legacy manager. This clean structure is what private equity buyers are actually purchasing: a scalable, repeatable system rather than a collection of key people who might leave after the sale.